Fact Sheet

April 2011

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 7 will conduct a Removal Action (RA) at the Instruments, Inc. site at 205 E. Lewis Street in Wichita, Kansas. The primary contaminant of concern is radium-226.

EPA PLANNED ACTIVITIES

The RA is to begin in May 2011. Radium-contaminated materials will be excavated from the property and replaced with clean material. Post removal sampling will be conducted on soil at the site to ensure that no contamination is left behind to pose a threat to human health and the environment. The RA will last about a week.

BACKGROUND

Radioluminescent paint and radium luminous compounds have been used extensively on watch and clock faces since the early 1900s. The wide use of radium in luminescent paints continued through World War II, because the soft glow of radium-produced luminescence made aircraft dials, gauges, and other instruments visible to operators at night. The Instruments, Inc. site was located at the above address in Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas. The site was the location of an aircraft instrument repair shop from 1967 through 1990. Instruments, Inc. used this facility to strip radioluminescent paint containing radium-226 from aircraft instruments.